For those who are still undecided, who are yet unsure, your hesitation is understandable. We are witnessing the unraveling of the very core of the institutions on which we have depended for stability, with the knowledge that those men and women who we had already elected to govern had neither the wisdom nor the courage to foresee or to warn, to enact or to guide. It is a time when it is hard to know who to believe. It is a time when we are unsure how to trust. We now both seek and fear their leadership. We now both seek and fear our responsibility in putting people in office with our single powerful irrevocable vote. We did put them, each of them, in office. We will put vast numbers of people into office again and again and again. We desperately want to know now that our next decision will right our course and yet secretly fear that it will not do so. Perhaps if we look beyond war and economics, we can make our decision based on who will help us to feel most hopeful, who will bring a kind of redemption to America, a redemption long overdue and much needed. Needed, perhaps, as much as, if not more than, economic and political savvy. If you are yet undecided, please remember, that a vote is also a terrible thing to waste. If you are looking for a reason to cast your vote, consider the power of the Inaugural Image. I tried to capture that power in a poem that I wrote during the primaries this past year.
Inaugural Image
A Poiem by Jeanine Ricchetti (Amanda’s Mom)
As her chances increased, I began to allow myself to look forward to the image of a woman in the Oval Office.
I thought that relatively few of us would feel safe giving the command to, not just a black man,
but to a black man with a name sounding far too much like the Islamic Extremist who most terrifies us, still.
Then I saw him rising; saw him gaining momentum, building strength,
even receiving a Camelot endorsement,
and I began to allow myself to see that image, in my life time, a black man, in the oval office.
I allowed myself to hope.
Could it be so? This soon? Just sixteen short years, just four short election cycles,
since such a public lynching of a black man in this country? Could it be so?
I detest sexual harassment and sexual intimidation any where, in any way, especially in the workplace where it can be an individual act,
but it can also be and so often is supported by an unspoken patriarchal hierarchal corporate culture,
But I do claim to own being an American as mine. I support the ideals of being an American.
I own that label. I wear that badge. I want, most vehemently, to be able to wear my label with honor.
To do that I must first admit that it was my culture, my country, my America, that committed
The message had been made clear. If you try, if you dare even try to elevate yourself and your people
to our status, you will be brought fourth in chains, forced to your knees, stripped naked
on the owners platform where each of us will take our pound.
For hours and days he was so displayed, so lynched.
What we had done as a culture was an abomination against America.
It brought to me then images of Dr. King cut down, of the Reverend Jackson taking it just so far, and then, perhaps remembering, and so, understandably, holding back, taking care not to be next.
It brings to me the images of black men in media since the time of Dr. King.
In film, television, and what they call “news”, black men brought to the owners’ platform, displayed
exactly the way that the owners wanted them portrayed: gangsters, killers, and clowns.
I fear for Mr. Obama. I applaud his courage. I value his conviction but most importantly,
I am inspired by his image to use my vote for reparations, not for what had occurred one hundred years ago,
but for what occurs in my life time, in my culture, in my America.
How much repair could be done I wonder, how many images minimalized, eradicated, overwritten, erased,
with just one, just one group-think, mega-media inaugural image.
Comments are closed for this post.
